This invention relates to a poultry processing apparatus and method and, more particularly, to an apparatus and method for cutting the neck of a fowl and breaking the neck bone of the fowl to prepare it for withdrawal of its windpipe, esophagus and crop.
In poultry processing, it is necessary to remove the windpipe, esophagus and crop of the fowl before severance of the neck. This process is accomplished by cutting the neck of the bird from the rear side to a controlled depth while breaking the neck vertebra thereby providing access to the windpipe, esophagus and crop. The incision is typically not made from the front or throat area so as to avoid cutting the windpipe, esophagus or crop. The cutting and neck bone breaking is often performed manually by workers standing adjacent a conveyor line in a poultry processing plant. Such cutting is time consuming, and therefore expensive, because of the manual labor involved. The manual method is also tedious, requiring careful attention so that the neck vertebra are sufficiently separated to allow sufficient access to the above parts.
Various machines have been proposed to mechanize the above process. One such machine is that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,965,534 entitled Poultry Neck Breaking Machine. In that machine, fowl suspended with their necks down are moved into alignment with a movable, rectilinear carriage including a series of movable guide bars. The entire carriage is rotated vertically in an orbital path from beneath the bird and the bars moved to clamp the hanging necks. Thereafter, cutting blades are reciprocated against the necks of the birds by fluid cylinders. The carriage is then lowered in its orbital path with the guide bars remaining in clamping engagement with the necks to stretch the necks downwardly while the cutting means are withdrawn.
The above-described machine operates by moving its various parts generally reciprocally with respect to the path of the moving fowl on the poultry processing conveyor line. The machine also requires a large number of moving parts all of which must be coordinated in their movement to the reciprocating motion of the machine.
The present invention is an improvement over the above-described and other neck-breaking machines and is designed for smooth, continuous, synchronized operation which cooperates with the motion of the fowl suspended on and moved along a poultry processing conveyor line.